ashe

The county need to take back the old RR line and finish the creeper bike trail from White top to WJ.

I was going to leave this alone since its off the topic but....you have to grow outside of the towns and that will grow the towns. You have to pinpoint the trends of the public as far as recreation and use them with the natural resources we have. The town of lansing is stepping in that direction but all they will get is a day traveler. Travel trailers are making a big come back and when you get people to stay you start making money. Bike trails and hiking trails is the next biggies. That state park in the middle of town is being just wasted. With all that acreage it could be developed to the hilt of bringing in money. You have to keep up with and look at the trends of all ages in order to make tourism work. This is just a taste of what is being wasted in this county.

Prada you make some very good points but this county still has more people living in poverty than most other counties, did you read this weeks paper. You may have yours and I have mine but high poverty rates do not draw people to the area. I prefer it here to Boone or Blowing Rock but we still need to get more to the area. Yes down town W.J. is much nicer than it was just a couple of years ago but is no where the draw it could be. It just is not promoted as well as Boone or BR. I would not want what they have there but we do need more than we have to support the population

It matters when someone is playing the religious right morality card.

I think we have a lot to offer Oldnews. From the riverfront activities in the spring and summer to the changing of the leaves and choose and cut activities in the fall/winter, Ashe has the means to draw people in. west Jefferson has done well the last few years in making the town more attractive for shopping, wining and dining visitors drawn by the activities as well as the variety of arts, crafts and musical draws. people from here flock to the beach to get away while people from the beach and Piedmont flock to the mountains.

What he does in his free time does nothing for any of us unless he is so busy with it that he lost track of what he is in office for, now that is a matter all to itself.

You know how it is when you fall in love, everything just goes to heck in the rest of the world.

That he was elected though is shocking given the bible carriers up here, so chances are no one is aware until now. Now that it is on this site should not take more than 2 second before it covers not just this county but also the whole mountain

Still hush-hush when this site doesn't know.

I am certainly not a supporter of his or those of his ilk. And it has nothing to do with whatever closed door frolicking he may or may not have been involved with.

Poor ole Ashe County is a one horse town, nothing to do, nothing to buy, all they do is sit around wine and cry. Our gold mine is Mount Jefferson and it's not even known locally.

I would be willing to bet if you ask half the people in the Capitol Building where Ashe county was located. They would have to look on a map before they could even tell you!!!

I removed a few posts for libel.

Its not what do we have but what could we have.

underdog

Like what do we have that will draw people away from the shops. I would agree that the shops and traffic are to much for me as well but what do we have and what do you think will bring us a few tourists? Really what do we have and what could we have?

Boone and Blowing rock dont have anything but shops. Broaden your horizons oldnews. Both are over developed and the traffic sux. We have several things they dont.

underdog

I agree that tourism is all that is left and second homes but if they do not make the county at least sound more attractive so that enough places open for tourist then we got nothing to offer. Look at what Boone as to offer or Blowing Rock then look at what we have. Why would anyone want to open a business where a product is made when they can do it in Boone where the roads are better and offer some sort of entertainment to people. Not much is offered here in anyway to entice people to visit this sleepy little town. West Jefferson is cute but just does not offer enough so that people want to drive all the way over here to visit.

Oldnews I made a statement about gates that no one on this site read, picked up on, or understood.

Next is most of us on this site have given up on manufacturing ever coming back to the county. Guess what that leaves? Yep, tourism so you better start figuring out how to make it grow and support the county.

Well something needs to be done in this county before it becomes a ghost town. Jordon or Tillis have done nothing to help the county and I do not see that they will in the future in any way. If the county spent money where it should be spent then we might see more business opening up. This county is not business friendly and until it is more and more will close and leave this county for more progressive areas

And given Jordan's tow the tea party line behavior, it's difficult to fathom why he wasn't hired as county manager. Instead they hired he who speaketh with a forked tongue who talks the tea party line but spends spends spends as if money grows on trees. I guess wealthy Republicans just don't understand the concept of managing money in a recovering economy. If what I'm hearing around town is correct, I would like to see an accounting of what his directives as manager have cost the taxpayers of this fair county. Perhaps they should have considered Jordan a little closer. While not the ideal candidate he likely would not have been so free in parting with tax dollars for trivial matters.

removed himself from the full-time practice of law in Ashe and surrounding counties. In my mind that is a very positive move for the citizens of the area. If you are asking about positive contributions from his time in the general assembly I guess it depends on which side of the political aisle you sit on. If you are of a conservative tea party leaning anti tax group, Jonathan has been a good little solider falling right in line with the instructions of the party leadership, If you are of the more liberal tax and spend, maximize the size of government beliefs, Jonathan has done little to help you.

No way did I vote for Poe or Price, only the uninformed voted for them and there are a lot of them. That is the problem I just stated before about people not giving a thought to how they vote as thought they do not think it will effect them in anyway